Dead Certain (Eve Benson: Vampire Book 3) (17 page)

It would work better, so Eve
agreed, standing fast.

“I’ll be back in the morning
then? Ginger and Dave will need to meet me here. I don’t want to lose the work
we’ve been doing. Nikki, too. Really though, she should be fine in a few more
days. Maybe less.” They grew up so fast.

Lenore seemed resigned to filling
in, but didn’t ask for anything for herself, which was strange. Not even after
The Cleric left.

She just seemed a bit scared.

“Be most careful, Eve Benson.
There is no way that this is as it seems.”

That pretty much had to be the
case, so Eve nodded, then, after making sure she knew where to go, ran under
the noonday sun.

 It slowed her down, but not
nearly as much as dragging poor Ginger along would have.

After spending the following week
running, a thing that felt literal to her, even if the fact was that she only
made ten trips, back and forth to the lab complex, she felt ready for a break.
Not that it was going to be in the cards for one Eve Benson. On top of
everything else, that started to feel almost like a bit too much for her to
take.

The situation on the ground had
been dismal, especially at first. The scientists that had been working on the
program had mainly been transformed into cannibal dragon beings that thought
anything that looked like meat was fair game. That didn’t include each other,
for some reason, but they did go at it like bunnies if left in a mixed sex
group, so it was decided to hold the nine beings in two separate enclosures.
Not
eight
, like The Cleric had mentioned, since another one had turned
far enough to require isolation, while they talked.

 As promised, the new highly
experimental formula was waiting for her. That part went about as expected,
with her darting into the closed off rooms, using her full speed. Leaving the
rather slow, scaly creatures, standing there like statues to her way of seeing
the world. So in that way they were all given their doses as scheduled. That
was another thing that had sounded different when she’d been told about it. It
wasn’t
one
shot for each of the new type of beings, all of them white
and kind of standardized in form, to her eye.

No, they needed
three
pokes, every eight hours. No one else would risk doing it, and the fact that
she could get it done meant that the vast majority of the people there wanted
nothing to do with her. Not because she might drink their blood, either. It was
a refreshing change up from Sheila the bigot Real Estate Agent. No, they were
just afraid that she’d be bitten and change, then kill them all.

Like hiding in the break room was
going to save them if that happened?

After the first five days, she
was technically finished, that being what she’d contracted for with The Cleric.
The beings were still a bit bitey, so she stayed at the white halled, hospital
feeling place, until they all changed back enough that the others could
communicate with them. That part was interesting, since over the course of
seven days the creatures went from looking like aliens, into people again. It
was slow, but each day she could tell it was happening.

The real trick was keeping Ginger
going during the day, at the same time. That meant a lot of fast moving on gray
freeways, passing cars that seemed to be hardly moving at all. Eve timed things
carefully, so that she’d be with her as much as possible, without messing up
the dosing schedule. Thank god she didn’t need to
sleep
. Dave and Nikki
were both doing well enough on their own by the end of that week to not need
her help or encouragement anymore.

Nikki, in fact, really didn’t
need her at all anymore, and David was being watched by Edom, who didn’t need
to do more than remind him not to lay down at about noon each day. That would
probably take a while, since the Vampire in question was a bit lazy, by nature.

Careless too, as well as sloppy.
Eve didn’t know when it had happened, but at some point the way that she viewed
other people had shifted a lot. Somewhere in there being dedicated, hard working
and precise had pushed past other things, in regards to how she saw everyone
else.

David was cute though, which
unfortunately didn’t help him much with the crowd at work. It had probably been
a big shock to him, honestly, when he’d first turned. Good looking people had
an easier time of things in life, because other people kind of wanted to fuck
them, so treated them better. This entire embassy was staffed with Vampires
that didn’t care at all about sex. That meant he’d gone from being a side of
prime specimen, to just another person on the payroll, without warning. Oh, she
could tell that David was nice looking, and symmetrical, but that fact wouldn’t
get him treated any better than say, Cormack, who had been far more normal
looking.

On her last trip back home, on
the final day of the lizard project, she found herself sitting on her bed in
the room Edom had provided her. It was small, and tidy, which was enough for
her. She’d never really had a huge space anyway, and hadn’t used it as more
than a changing room for a long time. She’d only stopped now, because there was
a package resting there. Waiting for her. It had her name on it, in bold black
printed letters, and several white envelopes were taped to each of the three
things sitting there.

She didn’t dive in, being a bit
leery about new and strange things suddenly. The writing on the outside was
nice enough though, so, moving slowly, she opened the first one, which was an
envelope that just sat on the rust covered bed spread. She’d never even laid on
the bed, she realized, and it would need to be washed soon, since it had gotten
a bit dusty. She could see that, since moving the things there around a bit
left faint marks. Swooshes of color, shining lightly in the glow of the single
lamp the space had.

They had a washing machine, so
she could do that later. It made it a lot easier to keep on top of things that
way, compared to going to a laundrymat.

The note, inside the envelope,
wasn’t a long one. The printing was pretty nice though. Very clear and easy to
read.

The larger box contains the
graphene. The smaller package holds what information I think you can use, at
the current time. Gregor.

That was it. The other envelopes
said basically the same thing. It was a bit redundant, but it was
just
possible that The Cleric didn’t think she was all that bright. Compared to him,
she probably wasn’t, but she could have made it through with only one letter to
direct her easily enough.

She set the larger box, which was
bigger than she thought it would be, but lighter, to the side, and opened the
smaller thing, which was filled with papers. They were clean and sharp, with no
smudges or hints of dust on them. She could smell the fresh ink that had been
used, which meant they’d been done in the last few days.

The reading was a lot more
fascinating than she would have figured on.

For instance, the first ten
pages, written long hand with very good and legible penmanship, outlined what
Fram had planned. There was more than one plan in the works, because the
Greater Demon would change up, if he was stopped in one place. He’d told her
about the planned Vampire/Human war, but if this information could be trusted,
that one was
already
a bust. Apparently because she hadn’t killed
Lenore. It said it that way specifically too. It wasn’t about one of them
dying, or Zack killing her. Just her taking out Lenore, as if that was the only
real option.

The
next
most likely thing
would be a set of financial attacks on Zack’s holdings. The ultimate goal,
which wasn’t stated, really seemed about a combination of things. It wasn’t
about The Line Walker though, but
Keeley
. If everyone loved Zack, they
seemed more than a little bit less enthused about The Mistress of Souls.

Fram was actually leading a
rather careful plan to set her back for a good long time. At least as far as
this information went.

Under that, in the same hand, was
a sheet that told her the story of Brian Smith. The bouncer. How he’d actually
been a Greater Demon the whole time he’d been employed at the club, and that
the same being had been around her in more than one place. There was,
naturally, no name attached. The point wasn’t to tattle on the Demon, just to
let her know that she really didn’t need to start looking for his grave off in
the countryside. That was clear, since Gregor had kindly added that in for her.

The rest was constructed out of
bits of information that were in single lines. Like the one that just said she
needed to work with Ginger on handling her desire to feed on Humans,
before
she was reintroduced to her parents.

It was leading, suggesting that
it happen for some reason, and that wasn’t lost on her. It also wasn’t a
horrible idea. Looking at the time, she nodded, stood up, and went to the phone
in the light colored living room.

It range a few times, and when it
was answered, the man on the other end sounded bored.

“Roy Benson. What can I do for
you today?”

“Hey Dad. It’s me, Eve. I thought
that I’d finally call, making me only the fifteenth worst daughter in the
world, instead of vying for number three. I’ve just been busy, and you know,
avoiding you and Karen. How are things going?” She didn’t explain herself, but
delightfully, she didn’t
need
to. Her bit of honesty seemed to be enough
to tell the whole story, without having an argument about how she was a
horrible person. She knew that one, so it would probably be a bit boring
anyway.

“Things are going well here. We
saw you in the news a few months back? When you were in that box? Those guys,
the ones that,
ehem
, you know, I take it they’ve been dealt with?”

Eve had to actually think about
that one, having kind of forgotten about it, actually.

“Well enough. A friend of mine
had them cursed, so their lives won’t be much fun for a few years. This is a
great location if you want to do things like that. Speaking of which, I need to
get with him. Go to a movie or something. I’ve been working almost constantly,
outside of being in a box.” At that, she was done. Everything she felt like
sharing had been spoken already, and it seemed like her father felt much the
same way.

They ended up talking about
Richard Swerlin, and who had messed with his mind, in order to get him to out
the Vampires like he had.

Eve shrugged.

“A Greater Demon, and
not
Darla or Keeley. Other than that, I don’t really know for certain. He doesn’t
know. I asked him about that.”

“Swerlin?”

She nodded, knowing that it
wouldn’t be heard.

“Yep. I’m connected in certain
areas now. If you ever need a good deal on animal blood, let me know, and I can
totally
get you a discount. You know, if you get any Vampire officers
going? You should look into that. It will probably mean having them on night
shift, but I bet it would come in handy in a fire fight. The whole not dying
thing, I mean.”

“Plus, that might set some of the
men at ease. They’re all becoming paranoid that they’ll meet up with something
they can’t handle, and end up dead, or someone’s human servant. Do you have any
recommendations for me?”

She knew that he meant
individuals that might be able to do the job, but she really didn’t, off the
top of her head. All the ones she knew that would be good for that kind of
thing were kind of already working for the Council.

But she knew who to ask, and
could do that for him. That was being a good daughter, wasn’t it? Helping her
dad out with his work?

“The Council has a database of
Vampires that are useful, and good at various things, but the Chief here,
Althea Sims? She’s one of us. I bet she has some great ideas that way. She’s
still not out, but might have some officers that are. I can pass her your
number?”

“Great honey! So, you should come
down for… When’s the next holiday?”

It was May, so she had to think
for a moment. They only did the big ones.

“The Fourth of July? I don’t know
that I’ll have that off, but I can ask? Though if we’re doing that one, you and
Karen should come here. They put on a super massive fireworks display every
year. I’ve seen it a couple of times, and it’s worth the trip. Let me know
ahead of time and I can get you a good hotel room.”

She could tell it probably wasn’t
going to happen, but that was fine. She hadn’t called for any particular
reason, just so
she
wouldn’t be the one forcing everyone else away. The
truth was, she just didn’t have that much in common with her family, and never
really had.

They made pleasant noises for a
bit, then her father, who was halfway through his work day, had to actually go
and see to running a police force. Apparently that actually took management,
for some reason.

She had things to do too, she
thought. If not, she could make some shit up.

The first one was checking on her
enemies, which she hadn’t done yet, really.

Eve wasn’t all that sneaky about
it, just going to Burgerville, which was only a few blocks from Troy’s house,
to see if Maggie was there, running things. She was, and looked good doing it
too. Healthy, and not at all like her left eye had been ripped out of her head
telekinetically. Though from what Eve had heard, it really had been. She’d
tried
hard enough at the time to make it happen.

The place was busy, being that it
had to be just after the lunch rush, and before people came in for dinner. It
was bigger than she’d thought it would be inside, and clean. Not to the
standards of Yoghurt World, but for a fast food place, it was freaking tidy,
and
smelled
right. Like French fries, and meat patties, along with
onion, instead of rancid fat, like so many of them did. Around the corner, by a
full sized classic car that was a polished mustard color, apparently used as a
decoration, sat Bey, reading a stack of papers. Like for work, or something.
She’d never seen that happening before, but it made sense. They normally only
had to go and lay down the law with a Bey smack down a few times a decade. He
probably did normal Council stuff most of the rest of the time.